Social media project honours women killed in DV

THREE Lismore women have been awarded the Our Watch - Best Use of Social Media - Award as part of Destroy the Joint's Counting Dead Women Australia project.

The Counting Dead Women Australia campaign gives visibility to every single death due to violence against women in Australia, with 62 counted by September 10, 2015.

Nelida Contreras, Naomi Worral and Linda Mills are part of a 15-person team of moderators that manage social media for Destroy the Joint on Facebook and Twitter.

Ms Contreras said she had been moderating the page for about two years, dedicating around nine hours a week as a volunteer.

"We post all kinds of things that affect women," she said.

"We started the Counting Dead Women project last year because we wanted to honour the women that have been killed violently because we felt that these women were going unreported, unnoticed and were basically disappearing from the news.

"We were concerned that a sports star makes headlines for weeks after getting king hit outside a pub, while as of today 62 women have died and nobody hears about them."

Ms Contreras said the award was an honour as it came from The Walkley Foundation.

"It means that journalists who are out there reporting work around violence against women have recognised the important work that Destroy the Joint does and the importance of talking about these women," she said.

Destroy the Joint is a grassroots national online organisation with close to 70,000 members on Facebook alone, focused on combating sexism.

The group was created after media commentator Alan Jones said that "women are going to destroy the joint" while referring to then Prime Minister Julia Gillard's government.

Organised by The Walkley Foundation, the Our Watch Awards aim to drive nation-wide change in the culture, behaviours and attitudes that underpin and create violence against women and children.